Why You Loved Me
by TigerStriper
Summary: Raven sacrificed her memories in a battle she doesn't remember to save people she's never met. Now she's living in an unconventionally shaped tower trying to live up to the expectations of her past. Beastboy spent the better half of ten years trying to make the girl he loved smile. Now she doesn't even recognize him. Can love withstand a shattered mind? Or will it cease to exist?
1. Chapter One: Forgotten

Authors note: Well hello there! Long time no see, I know I've been MIA for the past year and a half, not like I was around much before but things are going to change. No more unsteady updates or deleted stories or indefinitely unfinnished work. I solemly swear that I will remain faithful to this story until the day when it comes to its peaceful finale. And so after a long leave of absence it's finally time for me to kick start this baby and get on with this long overdue story and I must confess it is a beautiful beginning to this wonderful monstrosity. For those of you who are unfamiliar with my writing, note that many things have gone purposely unexplained and please keep in mind that this story is supposed to have confusing and mysterious elements, but all unexplained components will be explained in due time. So with out further ado ... the disclaimer.

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Me: would you do the honors?

**BB: You can't tell me what to do! You don't own me!**

Beastboy Me: That's the point….

**BB: oh, right… so that means I don't have to do it.**

Me: Just do it.

**BB: Fineee. The author does not own Teen Titans yada yada, ok there I did it.**

Me: Thank you…

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Chapter One: Forgotten

The steady beat of heart monitor rang through the otherwise silent infirmary, acting as the only indication that the cold, inert figure on the bed hadn't fallen into the hollow depths of death. If it weren't for that steady beat even the most highly trained individuals would mistake her for a corpse. She lay on her back, in what was left of her shredded leotard that ran across her colorless skin. Her mouth was agape, but her breathing remained to shallow, only to be heard by even the most acute ears.

The blinding sting of the bright lights blazed through the closed eyelids of the sleeping girl, stirring her from her unconscious state. Her wakening didn't happen abruptly. It was slow and peaceful, but when she finally regained enough consciousness to open her eyes she was devoured by confusion and disarray. She discordantly sat up on the scratchy mattress, calmly evaluating her environment. The room was not familiar, although she easily could easily conclude that it was some sort of hospital.

Knowing there were few earthly dangers that could truly harm her, found it quite odd that she would wake up in a hospital bed. She tried to remember how she had gotten to the strange place, she certainly never remembered getting injured. She grew slightly wearisome, put off by her sudden loss of recollection.

"Hello?" She called out weakly, gasping at the voice was only hardly recognizable as her own. She called out again, but was answered only by the silence. She went to step off the bed but she hesitated when she felt an I.V. uncomfortably pulling at her wrist. Following the skinny tube up from her arm, her eyes made contact with the bag of white liquid.

_What happened to me? _

The question haunted through her conscious. The last thing she remembered was... Well that was the problem, she didn't remember. Her memories had all muddled together, the way the did after a tremendous amount of time had passed. She had memories from her past, but could not seem to sort the closer ones into order, unable to deem any one of them as the absolute last one. Her strained thoughts were cut short by a soft but startling knock then came abruptly from the other side of door.

"Come in." She responded in her hoarse voice.

The door opened and in walked a man. She noticed how dashingly handsome he was. Tall and very, very fit, with short tousled black hair that glinted of hair gel and dazzling blue eyes that accentuated his crisp features. He was dressed in casually clothing, jeans and a red T-shirt, but he seemed rather young, far to young to be her doctor at least.

"I'm glad to see you finally decided to wake up." He said, giving her a cautious smile, as not meant to startle her. She could feel his nervousness, his worrisome anticipation, and it concerned her.

"Are you a doctor?" She quizzically probed.

"No Raven I'm not a doctor." He sighed, all the happiness in his expression fell, and she didn't have to be an empath to know that he was disappointed by her question. "I was concerned this would happen. I'm not a doctor, but you were in an accedent, I will explain everything to you but I must ask you a few questions to assess the severity of your injuries."

"I'm not in any pain." Raven told him.

"I figured such, I'm not concerned about physical damage, any injuries to your body have healed by now, however I do need to understand the extent the extent of your mental damage. I'm going to assume that since you thought I was your doctor you don't remember who I am?" She nodded no sympathetically, realizing that he wanted her to recognize him.

"What's the last thing you remember?" He asked her.

"I'm not sure, most my memories, seem so distant. I suppose the most recent event I could pinpoint would be when I saved a girl in Jump City from getting hit by a car. I remember because the car was a ridiculous pink van, but that isn't right. The memory, it's too old." She said, lost in her own confusion.

"Can you tell me what year it is?" He asked her again, but he already knew the answer.

"2006?" She responded questioningly, and the sadness on the boys face grew deeper as she had confirmed what he already knew.

"Raven its April fourteenth, 2013." The alarm on her face grew; she didn't understand had she traveled through time? How could seven years just vanish?

"I was expecting you to go through some sort of memory loss, however, I never imagined it would be this severe." The panic then settled in around Raven, as well as the anger.

"I don't understand. Who are you? What did you do to me?" She demanded from him.

"My name is Richard Grayson, and I have been your friend for a long time, I haven't done anything to hurt you, but you need to let me explain what happened." _Friend_. Raven didn't have friends. She was sure this was all some type of cruel prank. However, she didn't sense any malicious feelings from him, so she decided to remain calm, for the moment.

"Then explain?" _If you can. _She asked him.

"I am the leader of the Teen Titans, well now just Titans, a team of superheroes that you have been a part of for the past seven years. A few months ago one of our teammates, Koriandr, was contacted by her home planet of Tameran, requesting for aid defending off a mass invasion. The invaders, the Tironans, were brutal and tyrannical, but they were cunning, their intelligence far exceeded our own. We tracked them for months, gathering as much information as we could. For now I'll spare you the details, but in the end outnumbered by the millions and running out of viable options, you had mentioned to us a solution before, you called it Inversive Projection, you explained how the Azerathians used to use it to ward off invaders, but it had become a forbidden practice due to the detrimental effects it had on the castor. We, the team, were all reluctant but you convinced us that it was the only way to stop the Tironans, and you did." He explained to her.

Raven easily finished the rest of the story, she knew the effects of Inverse Projection, it was the act of releasing ones soul self to a massive and unrestrained extent, and then ripping it to shreds, theoretically destroying anything it touched. The consequences of Inverse Projection were detrimental to the mind, most stories she had heard about people who practiced it ended up lobotomized or in un-recoverable comas, if Richard's story was true, then she was surprised that she could still think at all.

"I don't believe you, I would not be so foolish to practice in the arts of Inversity." She said coldly, Raven was many things, but she was not one to test her limits, especially in such an extreme way.

"It was not something you suggested lightly, and there was a struggle, we were all well aware of the consequences this would have on you, you would not have done so if you believed there was any other way." He told her. Raven wanted to protest, to stand up in outrage, and rip him apart for trying to convince her of such ridiculous stories. But she didn't, because she believed him, she didn't want to, but she did.

"And you want me to believe that I did this because I'm some sort of superhero? I am not exactly the hero type." She told him, and he almost smirked.

"You made that same claim when you first joined our team, but I assure you that everything I am telling you is 100% true, I know a lot of this doesn't make sense, but it will take much more explaining, I remind you that seven years is a long time, and a lot has happened. But right now I hope that you can understand and bear with me. You have been asleep in a healing trance for nearly two weeks and our team has been very worried about you, and while I know you don't remember them, I feel like I should let them know you have awoken and what's going on, I am sure they will be eager to see you. I am not demanding, but hoping that you will come out and meet them." Richard said to her.

Raven couldn't cope with what he was saying, she felt like her mind would implode, but she could tell that whoever these people were, they cared about her, or a version of her at least. Trust was not something Raven gave lightly, but she had never been in the presence of someone who trusted her, she could see it in his eyes, and in his aurora, the love, the concern, it radiated off him. So she meekly smiled and agreed to meet with the rest of the Titans, Richard then left, to notify the others and allow her to collect herself.

_Seven years. I was gone for seven years._ Raven thought, but then realized, she was not gone, she had very much been alive and well, but to her those years were nothing, she had lost seven years, if only she knew what she was missing.

Raven stood up and grabbed the set of spare clothes, which had been left for her, they were unfamiliar to her. Only once had she ever worn anything besides her cloak. Walking into the infirmary's washroom she pulled off her tattered uniform, which was thankfully familiar.

She then turned to face the mirror. It was April, that made Raven just a month past twenty two, and she definitely looked the part. She was no longer the underdeveloped fifteen year old she remembered, the unfamiliar reflection in the mirror was of a fully grown woman. The woman had long indigo hair that fell to her rips, it was tangled from going unbrushed for so long. Raven always remembered being short and unevenly proportioned but this woman was far from. She was at least six inches taller, and the length of her legs were complementing and balanced with her smooth torso. However it was the face that un-eased Raven the most, because unlike the other changes, the face was unmistakably her's. It proved that her transformation was real. The features were the same, her straight nose, her curved lips, her amethyst eyes. But the face was different, it was slimmer, and more angled, as if all the innocents of childhood had been chiseled away.

The girl in the mirror looked strong and beautiful, enveloped with confidence and independence. But it wasn't Raven.

Raven sighed, hardly able to convince herself that she and the reflection were one and the same. She felt no connection to the reflection though, just an allusive emptiness. Raven abruptly turned from them mirror, tearing her eyes away from the hollow picture and reaching instead for the knob of the shower. As she turned it she noticed something glisten on her middle finger, a ring. She pulled her hand close to examine it. She had never seen it before; it was oval and made out of a dark charcoaled grey, with a smooth, opaque, plum colored stone. The ring, while it was beautiful, only added to the list of questions. That was another thing, this person wore jewelry, and Raven didn't.

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Garfield sat on the floor of the dimly lit room in front of a dusty bookshelf thumbing through the pages of a book, not actually reading any of it. The book was in Latin, or Italian, or some other language that he couldn't understand. He sighed as he stared at the book, this wasn't helping him.

"Hey Gar, I really don't think Raven would appreciate you in her room." The Changeling looked up to see his friend, who had appeared over his shoulder, staring down at him.

"And she would you?" He said, returning the book to its proper place on the shelf.

"Point taken, but seriously dude, what are you doing in here?" He asked, although the six-foot Cyborg already had a good idea.

"I dunno I just figured being in here would, I don't know help." He said, questioning his own answer.

"Listen B, I know its hard bu-"

"She's not waking up is she?" He interrupted his friend. Victor sighed at Garfield.

"It's been two weeks, I know everyone keeps saying she'll wake up soon, but I mean what if she doesn't." He said, trying to keep himself from crying. "I can't lose her to Vic, I just cant."

"Oh yeah that's what I came in here to tell you, Rave's awake." Victor said, flashing a huge guilty smile. Beast boy's eyes grew wide with joy.

"Dude for real?" Victor nodded.

"Seriously you could of started with that? Why didn't anyone tell me?" He said and sprang up, dashing through the door.

"I just did tell you." Victor retorted from behind him.

"How long has she been awake, have you seen her yet? Please tell me I'm not the last to know, I'm always the last to know things. Where is she, I have to see her." He rambled, as he stepped down the hallway, but was stopped by Cyborg's large metal hand.

"Wait, B there's something you should know before?" Victor said, pulling his green friend to face him. Garfield didn't like how he had worded that, like something was wrong with Raven.

"Ya know how she said the blast might have some… negative effects? Well it did, and well she doesn't remember you." Victor told him, and the words shattered through his ears like broken glass being dragged across his heart.

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Author's Note: Ok well I tried. If anyone finds any issues with the story, grammatically or stylistically please feel free to tell me. I need as much constructive criticism as possible, but if you are going to say it sucks, at least give me a reason. Also the back story for what happened i.e. the Tironans and the inversive projection is 100% made up for the purpose of the story. The first few chapters were pretty hard to write so be patient the writing will pick up and I'll add some desperately needed humor here and there. So please review and I'll love ya forever.


	2. Chapter two: Take one for the team

Author's note: If this is you're first time reading my story I hope you enjoy this chapter, If you're a re occurring follower then STOP! I added another scene to this chapter when I went through and edited, it's where Raven meets the rest of the Titans. So if you never read that part, READ IT. Thanks.

Disclaimer:

Me: Cyborg, would you please Disclaim for me?

**Cyborg: Only if you say "Cy is the coolest, most greatest person on the planet and I totally wish I was as awesome as he is"**

Me: What? No?

**Cyborg: Fine, then I will not disclaim.**

Me: *sigh* Cy is the coolest, most greatest person on the planet and I totally wish I was as awesome as he is. Happy?

**Cyborg: Yes I am, thankyou. TigerStriper doesn't own Teen Titans, all rights belong to their rightful owners… But if she did own the Teen Titans I would definitely be the leader.**

Me: ...if you say so…

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Chapter Two: Take one for the team

I couldn't get the pain out. It was everywhere. In my stomach, in my chest, in my throat, in my legs and arms, and it was only getting worse. It pulled into my core and ripped me apart piece by piece. The gilt, the dread, the sorrow, the pity. What right did I have to be hurt, I knew the consequences, and I just stood by and let it happen. And now I had gotten exactly what I had bargained for, and it was no ones fault but mine. Victor's words echoed through my mind _she doesn't remember you._ I had put the thought out of my head for so long, ignoring it and convincing myself into beveling that everything would be fine. That she would be fine. My hope and my heart had degenerated it a matter of minuets. And it was _my fault._

"Hello? Garfield? Anyone in there?" Victor's oversized hands waved in front of my frozen face.

_My fault. _

"Gar, you in there?" he asked and shook my shoulder.

_My fault._

"Listen, I know I shouldn't of just threw that out there but I had to tell you."

_My fault._

"It's my fault." I said despondently.

"What that's crazy. How can you say that? We all knew this could happen, but there was nothing we could do about it." Cy tried to reason with me.

"Exactly, I knew, I let her do it, I could've stopped her. But I didn't."

"Gar, that's not rational, yeah you could have stopped her, but would you be able to live with yourself? Knowing that you had let an entire world- our sister's home planet, full of millions of people, be destroyed, and enslaved, because you were too selfish to let your girlfriend save them? And what about Raven, how would she feel knowing that she could've saved them, but didn't, because she was selfish. The girl feels guilty about even being born, could you really put that kind of burden on her? Sure you could've stopped her, but it would haunt you for the rest of your life."

Maybe, in normal circumstances I would have understood, seen the logic and wisdom in what he told me, but the circumstances were nowhere near normal.

"We could've found another way. I could've saved her." I insisted.

"We tried. You were there, you know damn well that we tried everything this was our last resort, Gar." Victor defended.

"It wasn't our last resort, it was just the easy way out. We could've fought harder, we could've called for back up, but we didn't because it wasn't convenient enough." I shouted at him.

"B, calm down. There's NOTHING we can do about what happened." I slid down against the wall of the corridor, resting my head in my hands, my anger being replaced by sorrow.

"I should've stopped her, told her it was too dangerous, that it wasn't worth the risk, I should've saved her. But I didn't, and now I lost her. Vic what am I supposed to do?"

"You can stop blaming yourself. I don't know what's going to happen, this scares me to, but we have to try our best to be there for her, and we can't do that if you keep feeling sorry for yourself." Victor said but was cut off by Robin then rounded the corner and walked up to us.

"We're ready, lets go, I take it you told him what happened." Dick said, referring to my woeful position on the floor

"Wait, ready for what?" I asked them both.

"To meet Raven, or more likely for Raven to meet us." Robin explained. I could almost see him chuckle, like this was funny. I just stared at them, what was wrong with them? One of their best friends just lost her memory and they acted as if it was just a broken wrist.

"Uh, you guys go ahead, I'll be out in a while." Stumbled to my feet and into my room.

"Ok well don't be to late, I want her to get as much as we can covered tonight." Robin called as he and Vic disappeared into the Common room.

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Raven sat uncomfortably in the large office chair, her hair was still wet and the unfamiliar jeans rubbed against her legs in all the wrong ways. Across from her sat three of her so called team members. Richard was in the middle and the other two, one boy and one girl, sat on either side. Raven couldn't help from noticing their strange appearance. They were both unmistakably tall, although that was obviously the only trait they shared. The girl had deep, pumpkin orange skin as if she had fall pray to an extremely unnatural spray tan. She had untamable, fiery red hair that well surpassed her hips and alarming green eyes, Raven assumed that she couldn't be human. The mocha skinned man was huge, with traits that rivaled the NFL's finest linebackers But it was not his size that deemed himself strange, in fact his entire physique was overshadowed by another fact; half of his body was metal.

The three had been staring curiously at Raven for over a minuet and the attention was beginning to claw into her stomach. Shortly after she had finished her shower Richard brought her out into the Ops room where the Red headed girl had exclaimed joyfully, "Oh Raven, I am delighted to see you unharmed" But Raven had to question just how unharmed she was.

"So this is the team?" She finally asked in a desperate attempt to break the silence.

"You bet, this is Koriand'r, but you can call her Starfire, you've already met Grayson a.k.a Nightwing, and I'm Victor, but I'll also answer to Vic, Cyborg, Cy, Stone, or wizard of awesomeness. " The metallic man answered and held his hand across to her and she reluctantly shook it.

"It's nice to meet you all." She said and a twinge of sadness flashed across each of their faces.

"So I'm guessing you have a lot of questions for us Raven, but first I have to apologize for our fifth member's absence. He's off sulking at the moment." Richard said rather dramatically as if he wanted the so called last member to hear him.

"I do have some questions. I guess the first would be how did I end up on a team." She said, but that wasn't true, ever since she had woken up and realized where, or rather when it was the same pressing question lingered in the back of her mind. Why hadn't Trigon conquered the earth? The question continued to build as she listened to Richard's rendition of their first meeting and the encounter with the Citidel. She continued to ask questions that she deemed less important, listening to their explanations until she couldn't take it any more.

"How are you taking this all in?" Richard, or Dick as she realized he was more commonly called, asked her after finishing his explanations.

"I'm managing. Although there is one thing that does trouble me. Something bad, very bad was supposed to happen on my sixteenth birthday, but I can't understand how it didn't." She admitted and he showed a hint of a smile.

"You want to know what happened to Trigon." He stated.

"How do you know about?" She trailed off, her face turning to pure shock.

"When you know someone long enough, eventually they start to trust you with their past. Trigon did come on you're sixteenth birthday, and he did destroy the world, but you saved it. I don't know how but you managed to drive him away, and he hasn't been back since." Raven stayed silent, she never fathomed she would have any other fate then the one she was born to follow, but as the words dripped from his mouth she felt a wave of shock, awe, dissbelif, wash over her.

"So, is there anything else I should know? I'm sure you have better answers then I do questions." She finally said when her voice returned to her. The three looked back and forth, as if they knew they had something important to tell her. Finally Victor spoke up.

"Well there is the matter of Beastboy." Victor said reluctantly, as if it was a subject that was either of great importance, or only mentioned for the lack of other topics.

"The fifth Titan?" She asked, she had heard his name in several of the stories, Garfield, the shape shifter. She didn't think much of him or his abscence, but the actions of the three heros in front of her told her she might have to reconsider that.

"He's your boyfriend."

* * *

I really did mean to join them. But I couldn't will myself to move, and every minuet I didn't I just grew further and further away from ever wanting to. What was I supposed to say to her? "Hi I'm Garfield, I know you don't know who I am but you're in love with me." Yeah that would totally work. So instead I just stayed in my room being pathetic.

This couldn't be happening. I couldn't bring my self to believe it. That everything we had, everything I had worked to make, all the walls I had to break down, all the feelings she had for me, was all gone. But I guess that's how life works, once you finally get what you want, something happens that changes everything and you have to start all over. It sucked.

"You know when you said a while, I didn't think you meant five hours" Dick retorted, appearing at my door.

"Sorry, I was going to." I said. The boy wonder sighed and sat down on my bed next to me.

"Listen, I know this is hard, it's hard for all of us. But you can't just sit here and ignore her forever, you have to at least try to be normal." He told me. This was so typical of him, to ignore everyone's emotions and only focus on the facts.

"What would you do, if it was Kor instead?" I asked, trying to make him see things from my perspective.

He sighed, "I would suck it up and be there for her, I wouldn't push anything on her, I'd be her friend and I certainly wouldn't ignore her Gar."

"It's not the same, you remember how Raven and I were when we first met, she _hated _me. I don't think I can go through that again. It took her four years to even want to be in the same room as me, I just don't think I can do it."

"Well you have to try, for all of us, I need you to at least pretend you're okay and take one for the team. I know it wont be easy, and maybe she will hate you, but if you want any chance of getting her back you need to act like these past seven years didn't happen, because for her, they didn't." Richard told me. God I wanted to punch him. Everything that ever happened around here always seemed to be at my expense, and he thought it was okay because I could put on a brave face and still manage to be positive, but I was tired of putting on the façade.

"Okay, I'll try." I said, against my better judgment.

"Good," Richard said, almost smiling, "Cy's giving her a tour of the tower, it's about time you make an introduction don't you think." He said, half-heartedly as a sorry attempt to lighten the mood.

I sighed and stood up, preparing my self to do what I always do. Put on a happy face, hide my feelings, and take one for the team.

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Author's Note: So when I apologize for any mistakes this was an awkward chapter to write.

P.S. any bad grammar and spelling when it comes to a character speaking is completely purposeful and not a result of my complete lack of common English know-how.


	3. Chapter three: Seven Years to Slow

Author's note: Ok so I admit. The last chapter was not so hot, so it's back to 3rd person for me. Anyways I apologize for how slow this is going, but I've been having a hard time trying to introduce everything properly. After this chapter things will pick up, I just need to clear up some of the confusions from the previous chapters (mainly Raven's ring and the exploding washing machine)

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Disclaimer:

Me: All hope is lost, all my characters have ran away from my god awful writing and now I have no one to disclaim for me. *tear* But alas, the show must go on. So I, your faithful writer would like to state that I do not own the lovely Teen Titans, nor will my work ever be nearly as genius as that of the true creators.

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Chapter three: Seven Years to Slow

Raven sat on the bed in her supposed room. The familiarity in its contents, while it should have been calming, only continued to validate her situation.

After spending five hours in the Tower's common room with Richard and the two other titans, Victor Stone the partial machine and Koriandr the alien princess, reality had crashed down on her. This was a nightmare that she couldn't wake up from. Seven years. The words played over and over in her head, but they never sunk in. Seven years were gone; she missed seven years of her life.

She tried to wrap her brain around all her newly acquired knowledge, she was twenty-two. She was a superhero. She had defeated Trigon. She had a loving and caring family. She had learned to express her emotions. Essentially, she had accomplished all the things she didn't believe were possible. She had banished her nightmares and defied her demons. If only she could remember doing any of it. She didn't feel as if she had forgotten something, but rather that she had missed it, gone on a reluctantly forced vacation. And no amount of denial would change the facts; that the world had moved forward seven years, and she stayed behind.

There was a soft knock on her door, startling Raven, as she had been told no one would disturb her for the remainder of the night. She figured it must be an emergency of some kind; they were superheroes after all.

She walked over to her door, and looked for a way to open it. After finding that there was no doorknob she sighed in defeat.

"I don't how to open the door." She admittedly called.

"There's a button to the right of the door." The voice from the other side called and she pressed it.

"Thanks" She mumbled as the door slid open and she came to view who ever had disturbed her.

He was green.

He was many other things, he was tall and sculpted, but hunched down in a way that made him look smaller. He had tousled swamp like hair and bright innocent eyes and gave off a strong melancholy aurora. Raven noticed all these things as well, but mostly she noticed that he was green.

"So you must be the infamous Beast Boy." She said; the titans had spent a short, awkward amount of time talking about him, and for a moment she wished she didn't know who he was.

"Yeah, well actually you can call me Garfield, or actually don't do that, call me Gar, or Logan, or Beast Boy, or well you can call me whatever you'd like, just not Garfield." He rambled sheepishly.

"Wow, somebody has name issues." She retorted.

"Yeah I guess, I just wanted to say sorry for not being at the meeting, I was just wasn't in a very functional state at the moment, it's kind of hard to explain." He admitted to her.

"I understand. You don't need to apologize, if someone who meant a lot to me forgot all about me I guess I'd be a little upset as well." She said, half lying, to be honest she had never felt much of a connection to anyone at all. The feeling of complete devastation and heart break, the feeling that she was getting from him, was one she couldn't even imagine knowing.

At her words Garfield almost broke down at her words. It was one thing to hear them from everyone else, but to have them come from her mouth, in such a formal and emotionless tone, it was too much for him. He could only stare at her vacant face, wanting so badly to wrap his arms around her and apologize until his mouth grew dry. To tell her that he was sorry and beg for forgiveness, but to do so would be useless, because she wouldn't even remember what he had done.

"Well it may not mean much to you, but it was a really stupid thing for me to do, this isn't exactly the first impression I wanted to make." He finally said once he had mustered up enough words to break the silence.

"Ok." Raven said hesitantly. "Thank you for apologizing then. Though it was hardly necessary." The formality killed him. She would have never let him get a way with this. She would have glared at him retorting, "_you should be damn sorry you moron_" but she didn't, she was too polite, and it killed him.

"So are you okay? I mean of course you're not okay, but like do you need anything. I could get you some tea, there's this orange ginger stuff in the cupboard, its not to bad, it was your favorite" He stuttered.

He was just like the rest of them, Raven thought. Offering her things, trying to make sure she was okay and comfortable, like she was a valuable broken toy that they didn't want to fracture any deeper. Still she admired their consideration and concern. It was unusual to find people displaying so much kindness towards her that wasn't driven by fear and considering the events of the day she had to admit, she could really use a cup of hot tea.

Ten minuets later the green hero came back with two cups of tea. She considered simply taking the tea and drinking it in the quite of her own room, but she was unsure of what would happen if she was left alone with her own thoughts any longer. So she kindly invited him in, an offer that he eagerly took.

"I have to admit you were right about the tea, it is good." She said to him, trying not to let the fact that he was in her room, sitting on her bed bother her. After all, it didn't really feel like her room in the first place.

"Yeah. So you really don't remember anything?" he asked her, knowing it was probably a sensitive topic, but he had to have more proof.

"I remember everything up until my fifteenth birthday, Richard told me that was only a few months before the Titans assembled, but after that, there's nothing." She said solemnly.

"I'm really sorry all this happened to you. I mean you must be pretty disappointed, missing out on all the awesome memories you had." He said, as a poor attempt to say something that might have been funny in another universe.

"More overwhelmed. It's a difficult concept to grasp. I'm trying not to feel angry about it, but if I had to pick one it would be anger." She told him, sipping at her tea.

"Angry that you lost your memory?"

"No. Angry that I aged seven years over night. To me I don't feel like I lost my memory, I feel like I lost part of my life, part of myself, and I can't go back and re-live any of it. I'm sorry, I don't usually ramble on like this." She apologized.

"No it's ok, I'm glad you're talking to me." He told her, then noticed her hands, she was fiddling with the ring on her middle finger, remembering the day he had given it to her.

_They sat on the island's shore, his arm around her shoulder, looking out on to the water._

"_So I kind of got you something." Garfield said, reaching his hand into his pocket._

"_Gar I thought we promised no gifts." Raven sighed. She had been hesitant to celebrate at all, especially something so trivial. _

"_Yeah well I changed my mind." He said, pulling out a small ring. Raven had a doubtful look on her face, making him laugh._

"_Don't worry I'm not proposing or anything, at least not for a while." He chuckled, but Raven only raised her eyebrow at him._

"_It's just a promise ring, as long as you wear it, I'll always be with you, forever and always." He said and grabbed her hand in his own. Raven was hesitant, when it came to their relationship, commitment scared her, some days she wasn't sure if they would make it through the night, let alone _forever.

"_Gar, it's beautiful, but I just don't know." She said staring at the ring in his hand._

"_I know this whole relationship thing freaks you out, and I know the rules, I'm not trying to get a commitment out of you, but please wear it, for me." He almost pleaded, he knew she couldn't promise him anything, and she might not ever be able to, but that didn't mean he couldn't._

"_Okay, I'll wear it." She agreed, feeling his joy wash over her as he slipped it onto her finger._

"_Perfect fit." He beamed._

"_So tell me, when did you decide to become a romantic?" she asked him._

"_Well one of us had to be." He told her and she smirked, the way she did when he said something that was _almost _funny._

He remembered how happy he was that day. Knowing that she had an entire year to leave, to give up on him, but she didn't. But he also remembered another thing. All the things he remembered about that day, she didn't. He didn't even know if she knew about them.

"So this might come off as creepy but did anyone tell you about, me, and well, us?" He asked timidly.

"Yes, they did tell me, two years, if I remember correctly." She said nervously, she felt a great deal of pity for him, for what she was about to say to this stranger.

"And ten months. It would be three years on June twelfth." He added, knowing to her it didn't matter.

"I'm sorry, I guess that's not important, and you really don't have to continue, I know where this is going." He said, trying to hide his melancholy tone.

"I hope you can understand, to me you're a stranger. I can't allow myself to be in a relationship with someone I don't know. A few hours ago I didn't even think I was capable of feeling emotions as strong as the ones you have for me without killing people. So for now I need you to assume that whatever we had, is gone. And I know I'm not in any position to ask any one for anything, but I need you let me be a stranger. Let me get to know you, all of you for that matter, on my own terms."

"You know, out of all the reasons I thought you would dump me for, memory loss was never one of them." He retorted and she smirked. He was almost funny.

"But you're right, I know what we had is gone. But just so you know, if you ever need anything, you can always ask, I'll always be here for you." He said and he stood up.

"Thank you." She managed to say to him as he grabbed the two teacups and headed to the door.

"Goodnight Raven." He said before disappearing out of the room.

Raven laid down on her bed, hiding in her covers as she felt a wave of guilt wash over her. There had been a day when she vowed she would never hurt anyone and she had broken that promise. She couldn't pretend that she loved a stranger, but she couldn't ignore the feelings he had for her. As he left the room she could feel all his sorrow and pain leave with him. Leaving her feeling numb, finally finding the emptiness that he had expected her to find.

She no longer felt like a broken toy. She was a broken clock. And she was seven years to slow.

* * *

Author's Note: Yikes! I hope that wasn't as painful to read, as it was to write. But I'm glad I finally got it out of the way and I hope it clears up the ring confusion, no ones married! Now I can move on to the fun, angst, mischievous plot that I've been waiting ever so eagerly to write. And please. Review, I felt like this was such a failure of a chapter that I can take all the help I can get. Also I did little to no editing to this chapter so please calm your inner grammar Nazi's and excuse any mistakes.


	4. Chapter four: Breaking Eggshells

Author's Note: Hello lovely Internet folk. I have finally completed the next chapter for you. I apologize that this took a bit longer than the previous ones, I just went back to school and have to deal with the oh so wonderful stressors of mid- terms. Unfortunately this also means my chapters will be a little slow for a while, but I will try to stick to a weekly routine. So here it is, chapter four, its not great, it's not awful. But a meh chapter is better than a non-existent chapter right? Also, just as a forewarning, this story will inevitably become M rated, later on, and this chapter has some heated language in it, although not enough that I thought the rating needed to be changed yet, but if at anytime anything comes off as to offensive just let me know.

* * *

Disclaimer

Me: Garfield! You came back!

**BB: Don't call me that!**

Me: Considering I have the keyboard I'll call you what ever I want sweet cheeks. Now you know the drill. Hop to it.

**BB: *sigh* The stupid dumb author doesn't own Teen Titans because she's a lamo.**

Me: Watch your mouth! Or I'll force feed you fried chicken.

**BB: hehe I mean the lovely and talented author unfortunately doesn't acquire the rights Teen Titans and isn't going to make me eat meat because she's so wonderful and amazing.**

Me: That's better! Now on with the show!

* * *

Chapter four: Breaking Eggshells.

Three weeks ago, Raven awoke to a new life as a member of the esteemed Teen Titans. All the Titans knew that life as the once knew it would never be the same. But gradually they had all begun to settle into a comfortable routine, one that was in no way perfect, but it was one they could all live with.

The first week had undoubtedly been the hardest on all of them. Raven was, with great reason, having a difficult time adjusting to titan life. Her new role as a crime fighter was one she quickly grew fond of, however her role as a friend was not so easily adapted to. She was constantly apologizing for any burden or imposition she had felt she had made on the other Titans, becoming prone to doing as much of the work around the Tower, as if not to dishonor their kindness. She found herself desperately adjusting her self to be more of a convenience to the team; she never turned down an offer and always catered to a request. While the other Titans were amazed at her competence, eager to see such an unused side of Raven, each of them grew concerned in her behavior. While the navy hooded sorceress's new addituted was indeed refreshing, it felt wrong, and in Beast Boys words, "just wasn't Raven".

Koriand'r, whose observations were more acute than she was given credit for was quick to notice Raven's changes, while in ordinary circumstances she would be elated by her team member's involvement, she knew it best for her friend to be her true self. And so she devoted her self into finding the true Raven and triggering her memories. The exotic E.T. jumped at ever opportunity to tell stories to Raven. The way she retold stories made them was fantastical, she would overwhelm herself with the dearly kept memories and charming moments. But while Raven had to be impressed by Kori's impetuous memory, and knack for story telling, as hard as she tried, she just didn't care what they did at the mall on October 4th of 2008..

Of the five, Robin undoubtedly, was the least affected by the recent tragedy. Of course he felt for his friends, understanding better than no one else, the emotional determents that came with every terrible change, but he knew he owed it to his team to keep calm and carry on. Perhaps the old Richard Grayson would have reacted differently, but those days had passed for him. He was a leader now, he had responsibilities, and he owed it to his team to be strong when they couldn't.

Cyborg, had adjusted the best to the new Raven, apparently all his circuits made react a lot more logically than the others. He was friendly and helpful, but not so much that it made her uncomfortable, as with Kori, rather he would talk to her as a casual acquaintance, rather than a struggling lover, as with Gar. He knew what it was like to be in a new threatening place, and he strived to be the type of person he would have liked to be there. He wasn't intrusive, but he wasn't skittish either. He reminded Raven of Azar, for he presented an understanding and acceptance that she had long sense forgotten.

Garfield, on the other hand had gone far beyond mental. He was no longer the funny, light hearted, goofy character they all knew. No one needed to look twice to know what was wrong with him, none of them expected him to take the situation wrong, but the situation had them all worried, even more than they worried about Raven. He had spent the first four days in his room, sulking, and when he finally did come out he simply walked around, sulking. Every so often he would go to Raven and ask her if she needed anything, to which she would always reply that she didn't, but she would ask if she did, but other than that the changeling just lurked around, sulking.

All the Titans had put in a considerable amount of time into searching for a cure for Raven's amnesia, Kori, trying to recover her memories through her stories, Robin, contacted the most esteemed doctors in the country, Victor would spend his time in the infirmary with Raven, analyzing her neurological systems, and Garfield was to distraught to do more than try to _will_ her to remember.

Eventually life for Raven fell into a routine. Upon waking up she would spend an hours worth of time meditating a ritual she was thankfully comfortable with. Her mornings were spent in the company of the Titans, as she would force her self to submit to socialization. He afternoons were spent in the infirmary with Victor and her nights with Kori, in the vivacious aliens room as she told tales of the Titans and their "wondrous" adventures. She didn't see much of the other two Titans. Every so often she would have a meeting with Richard where he would explain battle tactics to her and make sure she was adjusting properly. Even though she slowly warmed up to the four Titans, the green changeling still shied away from her and remained an undiscovered mystery.

Garfield walked into the empty kitchen, sitting down on one of the island's stools. He was tired. Not physically, but mentally he was drained. He couldn't take it, not talking to her, but frankly he just couldn't take not talking in general. Over the past week alone he had said a whole of a hundred words to anyone.

Beast boy wasn't fit for grieving, he had been through similar situations before, first with his parents. Then with Terra, and every day he didn't get better, he got worse. If it hadn't been for Raven he didn't know if he would have ever bounced back from that.

So he simply couldn't stand it. The mischievous, poor humored, chipper, aspects of his personality were his distractions. And with so much to be distracted from; his immature nature is what had kept him sane all these years.

He looked around the vacant kitchen, remembering the argument they had nearly two years ago.

"_God, what the hell is wrong with you?" Raven yelled at him from across the table._

"_What's wrong with me? I'm not the one yelling over something so stupid." He said defensively. _

"_It's not stupid. I swear you are the most insensitive asshole on the planet." She shrieked, trying to keep from throwing something at him just to relinquish her anger. _

"_Really, if I'm so bad then why the hell are you with me. This relationship isn't one sided, you've made it pretty damn obvious that you don't want me, so if you want to leave, then leave." He said, raising his voice to match hers._

"_It sounds a whole lot like you want me to leave Garfield." She accused._

"_Maybe if you didn't run away every time we're alone together I wouldn't." He shouted._

"_Maybe if you weren't such a pig headed pervert you would accept the fact that I _can't _do what you're asking for." She countered. _

"_Or maybe you just don't want to." He said, lowering the volume of his voice._

"_Seriously Gar do you even think? Did you even consider what I feel about this; do you think I want to be the girl who can't even have sex with her boyfriend? Don't you think I feel bad enough about it without you giving me all this guilt?"_

"_You honestly want me to believe that you can't sleep with me?" He inquired._

"_Yes!" _

_And then the microwave blew up. Distracting them both enough for their tempers to fizzle down. _

"_Great." Raven said. Placing her head in her hands and leaning against the table._

"_We have to stop this." Garfield sighed as he stared at the demolished microwave. That was the second one this week. He was starting to think Raven was targeting it specifically._

"_I know, it's just sometimes I just can't take it, you're just so… frustrating." She told him, picking her words carefully, as to keep from angering him._

"_I know, I'm sorry I shouldn't push you so much." He apologized._

"_No you shouldn't… But I'm glad you do." She confessed. "Don't get me wrong, it drives me insane, but you're the only one whose ever taken a risk with me, tried to pull me out of my safe bubble, and even though I'm stubborn you don't give up on me, I don't know what I'd do with out you B."_

"_Yeah, well, who else do you know who's stupid enough to rattle the demons cage." He joked._

"_Only you" _

That had been one of the far and few times he had ever heard Raven scream. Things had been so different back then. They had both been on edge for months and that day had been the snapping point. Looking back, he realized how right she was. He was acting like a complete pig, but it wasn't the sole fact that she wouldn't sleep with him that bothered him; he wasn't the type to be upset about that. Rather it was her reasons that set him off. She would be totally fine. Until she thought she was losing control, and then she would close herself off again. He hated the way she let her powers control her, it wasn't fair to her, so eventually he snapped. It had seemed out of the blue, the Titans had just put in a movie and right before the movie started she had said something to him. Some snide comment that normal he wouldn't think twice about, but this time he snapped.

Remembering it now the entire argument all seemed too irrelevant; they had long since gotten over their bedroom problems. Not that any of it mattered now, but he knew then, and he knew now that he shouldn't have been so cold towards her. He only was because he knew she could take it. And maybe, just maybe, she still could.

Later that day…

Raven took another hit at the large punching bag. Driving all her force into it. She had been at it for hours but still felt like she was somehow doing it wrong. Again. She hit it again and again, until sweat drenched and exhausted.

As Raven adjusted to her new life she spent a considerable amount of time amazed at the transformation and inevitable problems she had overcome. Raven, optimistic as she was (as in was _NOT)_ soon determined that if she had to choose a reality for her self, her life as a Titan would certainly suffice, but, she realized the only aspect she was truly dissatisfied with was her current physique. She was in no way out of shape, or anything close, but when it came to powerless hand-to-hand combat she knew she would never stand a chance. Raven would find herself in the Titan's gym for hours at a time, training her body, until she had worked herself ragged. The process as well became routine for her, it's mind numbing and calming effects almost substituting for her mediation completely.

"Well, looks like someone's found a new obsession." The voice boomed into the gym, dragging her back into reality. She turned to the green boy who stood leaning against the side of the door.

"I'm not obsessed." She refuted, hitting the bag.

"Let's see, disappearing for hours at a time, ignoring vital life necessities, not even stopping when someone's talking to you, yep definitely obsessed." He mocked as she ignored him.

"I don't have time for this, what do you want Garfield?" She asked him, on the verge of annoyance and masking a sudden confusion. Since the day she had met him he had kept his distance, hardly ever interacting with her, let alone in such a rude manner.

"I was bored, thought I'd come bother the worlds moodiest amnesiac. Besides considering the fact that you've been hitting that thing wrong for the past twenty minuets I figured you could use some help." He replied smugly.

"Here, like this." Garfield said, walking up to strike the bag with extreme precision and force. He had gotten much better with hand-on-hand combat over the years, it was a shame Raven would never be able to see the awkward shrimp he used to be.

"You've got to hit with your core not with your arm, like this." He said punching it twice more. Raven, negligent to take his advice, ignored him and continued to hit in the same fashion as she had before.

"You never did listen to me." He said, chuckling at her determination he walked behind her and grabbed her waist quickly twisting her so she was angled towards the punching bag. She quickly reacted to his touch, jerking him off her.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to touch people without permission?" She responded in a full-fledged bad mood, while hitting her target much more effectively from her new adjusted stance.

"I hate to break it to you, but I've gotten your permission before.

Besides, you've got to admit, I was right." He smirked.

"That still doesn't give you the right to touch me. Regardless of what I've supposedly let you do in the past." She breathed, trying to diminish any curiosity she had on the subject.

"I'm just trying to help, if want to get any good at this you should listen to me." He said, watching as she fought with the inanimate object.

"I didn't ask for help."

"You never ask for help, but that doesn't mean you don't need it." He told her, stepping in front of her, blocking her next hit.

"Actually that's exactly what it means Garfield. Now if you don't mind I'm trying to concentrate." She said, gesturing for him to move.

"You're never going to get any good hitting that old thing. You need an opponent who can fight back. Now I can see why you'd be intimidated to fight me, with my brawny physique and all, I can come off as a bit menacing, but I assure you, I'll go easy on you." He said over dramatically.

"Actually I have no issue fighting you and your _scrawny _physique. I'm starting to understand why Victor finds you so aggravating." She told him while backing away from the heavy bag.

"He's just jealous of my boyish charm and dashing good looks." He joked, shaking off her insult.

"I'm sure. If you're such a pro at combat I suggest you stop standing and start fighting." She said, and he moved to face her. Honestly, he wasn't completely sure about hitting her, he knew she could heal, but the thought of causing her pain was one he liked to avoid.

"I'm ready when you are." He said coolly, walking to face her.

She shrugged slightly while jumping into the air, kicking him in the chest and catching him off guard. He grimaced from what he would consider a surprise attack, but soon recovered; she was strong, but not strong enough to knock him to the ground. The second time, he was ready, and quickly caught hold of one of her arms, pulling her to the ground.

"That was way to easy." He said with a lingering smirk as she pushed him off her.

"You have to be quicker, create distractions, like this." He advised, demonstrating her an array of moves into the air.

They continued to duel, every new move he would show her she would flawlessly mimic moments later, it was impressive, but held no match to Garfield's years of experience. However, the intervals between his triumphs grew longer and longer, but he went undefeated nonetheless. With a finalizing strike, he swiped her to the ground, tumbling down on top of her.

"I'm starting to think you like me on top of you Raven." He smirked.

"In your dreams Garfield." She replied, she had grown less inept to his rude comments, the first four times he had said something to her she had met him with a quick slam against the ceiling rather than a casual, less painful, retort.

"No. In my dreams, you're on top." He smirked. Raven eyes grew wide and she violently pushed him off her, popping up to her feet in a swift motion. He quickly followed and Raven made no hesitation begging their fighting. After many strikes and ducks Garfield captured Raven by her arms, which were crossed across her chest. For another of the many times that day she found her self in a compromising position to him, much to close for comfort.

"Face it, I got ya beat. Again." He said, making her smirk. In one swift maneuver she twisted her arms around and flipped him to the ground, for the first time that day, landing on top of him.

"You were saying?" She beseeched.

"Impressive, This is usually the part of my dream where you take off your clothes." He said, wagering his eyebrows.

"Right after you get beat up by a girl?" She seethed, jumping off him.

"Oh please, I totally let you win." He said, dusting himself off as he stood up.

"Sure you did Beast Boy. Lets go again." She encouraged.

"Actually I think I'm gunna hit the showers." He chuckled nervously, not wanting to par take in another fight, now that she had won against him.

"How convenient." She said sarcastically.

"I'll beat you tomorrow, besides, don't you think you've worked yourself hard enough, I mean you're completely drenched in sweat." He pointed out. "And while it's totally hot I suggest you shower yourself before you consider going around any one with a sense of smell." He added as he disappeared out of the gym.

Exhausted, Raven slid down the side of the wall until she hit the matt below her. _Well that was interesting._ She thought to herself. She couldn't believe the nerve of him. For as long as she remembered him, he had been nothing but polite and distant from her, of course she had picked up that he was a little dense, but this had gone beyond belief. He had tapped into each and every one of her pet peeves and crossed all of her strictly brought up boundaries in little less than two hours. Raven could deal with someone who didn't know better, but Garfield had made it very clear how much he knew about her. She was unnerved, someone who knew her that well should know better than to try to set her on edge.

Yes his provoking behavior had left her confused and completely goaded. But at the same time, she was almost refreshed at his actions. Ever since she had found herself with the Titans they had all been overly cautious in their actions, carefully skirting around her emotions and trying aimlessly to maintain her happiness, as if she was a sleeping monster they didn't dare to wake. They had all been walking on eggshells around her, but Garfield, Garfield stomped right through them.

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Author's note: Ok so I know the combat lesson was completely bogas, it may be the sole reason for the delay. I eventually ended up watching a bunch of karate videos, which didn't help, but I was out of time so I went with improvising. Anyways, I hope this is satisfactory as a chapter. Please review. I'll give you bacon if you do.

**BB: You mean Tofu Bacon... Right?**

Me: No Gar. Just bacon. Plain, piggy bacon.

**BB: :(**


	5. Chapter five: Good enough

Author's Note: I pretty much went in and buldosed this entire chapter. There's some remnants of the origonal. but not much.

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D-D-Disclaim

**Raven: So… When do I get to go back to my martyr like self, I've been way to polite lately. **

Me: Well it's not my fault you feel so guilty about the titans.

**Raven: Yes it is, You're the author.**

Me: Right. I'll get to it… eventually. Now can we get on to buissines.

**Raven: The author doesn't own Teen Titans, but I really don't see why she has to tell you ever week, its not like you don't already know. **

Me: Thanks! Now we can get on to the important part!

**Raven: Joy…**

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Chapter Five: Good enough

"… and then the enormous silky exploded and returned to his original size, leaving behind a wonderfully delicious pink go." Starfire finished the story with a beaming smile. The two were sitting across from each other on the pink plush bed much as they did ever night.

"That's great Kori." Raven responded vacantly, as she stared at the hazy sunset that shown through the girl's window.

"You seem uninterested, is something troubling you?" The alien girl asked her, her chipper tone evaporating.

The sound of the Titan's alarm thundered through the tower. Rescuing Raven from having to talk about her feelings, as Starfire so often demanded she do. The two made no hesitation to flee from Starfire's room and into the Ops room where the other three Titans were standing.

"Titans, the Five's been spotted in various locations around the city. We need to spread out, Raven you and B go after Jinx, Star take care of Mammoth and Gizmo, me and Cy will take care of the rest. Titans, Go." He said, the team acted with haste, the three flight capable teens departing out open windows as Robin and Cyborg rushed their way to the basement.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to send Rae and B out there together? They haven't exactly been on the best of terms lately." Cyborg asked once they were both in the T-Car. Ever since Beast boy and Raven had the encounter in the gym there was an unsettling tension between them. Of course there had been before, but now it was harsher, more temperamental. Victor had easily picked up on what Garfield was trying to do. They all knew that ever since the accident, if it could be called that, Raven hadn't been the same. She had been so polite and guilty about everything, restraining her true self for the sake of the team's feelings. While Victor agreed that he wanted Raven back to the way she was, or even something close, he didn't agree with the method that Garfield had chosen to provoke her "true" self.

"They work well together, issues or not. Besides I figured B could use all the time with her he can get." Robin told him.

"I hope your right."

* * *

In and out. That was the plan, it was simple, Jinx reminded herself. Ever since she had turned her back on Wally and the Titans she had found her work with the five complicated. It wasn't the jobs themselves that she found difficult, in fact it was just the opposite, but being on the other side, she saw things, terrible things that she didn't notice before. Even worse, she saw flaws in everything they did, she always wanted bigger and better, but sometimes she just couldn't have it.

She turned back to the bank vault, finishing the last step in her futile petty crime. Suddenly a wave of dark energy slammed the vault door closed.

"Sorry. I can't let you do that." A voice contended from above her. She smirked, finally, something interesting was happening.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite Titan." She said, turning around to face the hooded demon.

"Of course, you probably don't know who I am, heard about your little memory issues, what a shame, I suppose I'll have to go easy on you." She said, with her phony sympathy.

Raven's blood boiled at the girl's haughty antics. She didn't have time for this.

"Azerath. Metrion. Zinth-" She was cut off mid-chant by Jinx casting her pink hex, causing Raven to fly backwards against the ceiling.

"On second thought, I don't think I will." Jinx said, smirking for a second time. Raven fought to hold her anger as she regained her balance. She didn't need chants for this, she thought as her dark energy came out, wrapping around a table, which she launched at the pink haired villain.

Jinx was already a step ahead of her as she launched into a back spring, dodging the table and sending another hex, causing a pillar to crumble and crash onto Raven.

Jinx turned back to the safe, opening it with little effort. She had to admit, Raven's intervention wasn't the challenge she expected but it would suffice. Jinx looked around at the contents of the vault, she still wanted to know who was the idiot who decided to leave thousands of dollars in gold lying around in a safe in the middle of the city. Sure it was supposed to be an unbreakable safe, but one would think after the first time it proved unworthy someone would a change.

Looking over her head, to make sure her opponent hadn't escaped she was rapidly hit in the gut with an extreme force, knocking her to the floor. By the time she had recovered and gotten back on her feet she was struck again, this time in the back. But she had enough time to recognize her attacker as a large green Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The extinct creature then changed back into a man and ran over to the collapsed rubble where Raven had escaped from the crushing debris.

"Are you ok?" He asked frantically.

"I'm fine Garfield, I don't need a babysitter." She snapped back.

"Obviously you do." He replied grabbing her wrist and gesturing to the long cut on the back of her forearm.

"I'm fine."

"No you're not. Stop trying to act tougher than you are."

"Can this wait, I don't have time to deal with you're idiocy right now." She pried away from his grasp.

"Well… while you two are arguing, I think I'll just excuse myself." Raven heard Jinx say and the double doors she was trying to escape from slammed shut with an earth-shattering roar. Raven turned to Jinx, wrapping her up in her dark matter as to prevent her from running.

"I'll deal with you later." She shot back to Garfield as she called Robin, to let him know the criminal had been captured.

* * *

Raven sat in her room as she finished healing the gash in her arm. It had been painful, but pain was a sensation that Raven was particularly good at ignoring. When the damage to her arm was repaired she stood up and exited her room.

He was waiting for her. She didn't know how long he had been standing outside her room but she guessed it had been a long time.

"Hey how's your arm?" He asked.

"All healed." She replied and saw the concern melt away from him.

"Good. I was worried about you." He told her.

"You shouldn't have been. I'm fine." She said, pulling up her sleeve to expose the freshly healed flesh, all that was left of the bloody wound was a faint pink line.

"I see that, but I was worried anyways." He stated.

"You shouldn't bother, I'm not worth worrying about." She said and was about to walk away when his hand clasped on to her upper arm.

"Wait. Are you ok?" He asked with his pleading eyes.

"Garfield I just told you, my arm's fine." She said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

"No that's not what I meant. Ever since the accident…" his voice got quieter as he said that word, he hated calling that, but ever since Dick had deemed it as a "tragic accident" it seemed to be the only way to describe it. Only it hadn't been an accident, and everyone knew it. "You've been different."

"Well you didn't expect me to be the exact same person, I lost part of my self Garfield, it's not like I have a guide ' how to be Raven 101.'" She snapped at him. He had been the first to flat out say that, at least to her face, it didn't matter that they were all thinking it, he said it.

"No, that's just it. The Raven I knew, the one I met seven years ago, she would never try to fit in to someone else's idea of who she should be. She was stronger than that. And I just hate to see you walking around feeling like you don't deserve to be here all the time." He said to her.

"Garfield I don't know what to tell you, I'm different. Brain damage changes people. I'm not ever going to be the way I was, the girl who defeated Trigon, the girl who conquered all her demons, the girl you're in love with, she's gone Gar. And she's never coming back." She snapped and yanked her arm away from him.

"You act like you're not even the same person. That girl, she is you."

"You know that isn't true, all of you know I'm not same person, I'm not her, just the remnants of what she left behind. I'm sorry that I'm not good enough to live up to all the stupid expectations she left for me." She told him with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, like deep down she really wasn't sorry at all because she knew she shouldn't be.

"You're more like her than you know." He said as she ripped her arm away and sashayed down the hall and out of sight.

* * *

A glimpse of light trickled through the small crack in the wall. The silver haired girl angrily fumbled to find something to fill the hole.

She couldn't be found. Not now. Now that she had gotten so close to achieving her goal.

For months she had waited, lurking in abandoned apartments and vulgar motels. Waiting for one of them to show weakness, to show some sort of vulnerability that she could use and now that it had it was almost time. She had been slowly building up her power since her last fall, and this time when she faced them, nothing would go wrong, she was unstoppable. So now it was time, to finally let all her hard work pay off.

All she had to do was think of a plan. It had to be good, fool proof, they would never see her coming, and when the time was right she would strike. And take down the Titans for once and for all.

* * *

Author's note: So I'd love to hear some constructive criticism right now. Actually any criticism would probably do, because it's just that bad. So please, Please, PLeeeeeasse Review. BTW if the Italicized paragraphs are flashbacks, I don't know if I mentioned that or not. But they're going to happen a lot during this story, so I figured I should make sure you all knew. Hopefully Raven will start acting more like herself after this. Anyways I know I'm no good at writing action scenes, or dialogue for that matter, but I hope you enjoyed it. Oh and if you review I'll give you cookies!


	6. Chapter six: The Green Eyed Monster

**Author's note: Don't hurt me! I know I haven't updated all month but its here. Also this is pretty much the last stop before the story begins on to the quicker moving plot which I'm sure some of you can't wait for. ****IMPORTANT READ THIS: I went back and re-edited all the previous chapters, most of the changes are minor but I'd ask that you take a look 5, I changed some things that are relevant to this chapter.**

* * *

**Cyborg: took ya long enough **

Me: It's not my fault, I had school, and finals, and research papers. You can't blame me for being productive!

**Cyborg: Please, we all know you were watching T.V. the whole time.**

Me: Was not! Don't listen to him!

**Cyborg: No, do listen to me. She's lying. If she was realaly working the whole time then that reaserch paper of hers would be DONE.**

Me: Just do the disclaimer

**Cyborg: The **_**lying **_**author doesn't own Teen Titans, or DC, or really anything for that matter. **

Me:….

* * *

Chapter Six: The Green eyed monster

Raven squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force her self to sleep. But as hard as she tried, her mind would not be put to rest. Another horrifying chill spread through her veins and she clutched her covers tighter. His emotions were so strong it was as if she was in the nightmares with him. She could almost hear the petrifying shrills and see the ghastly images.

She thirsted for sleep, but the world would not let her be satisfied. Turning on to her side she tried to block out her powers, but the emotions were to close, to strong, and they broke through whatever wall she built up for them.

In defeat Raven grabbed her pillow and wrapped it around her head, doing her best to ignore the ghastly emotions.

Garfield groggily stepped out of his room, trying to shake the dream out of his memory. It had only been one of many of the horrid nightmares that had graced him that month. Some were worse than others, but they all ended the same, he was supposed to save her, and he failed. Last night's had definitely been one of the worse dreams. He trailed slowly to the bathroom, contemplating whether or not he should just turn around and go back to sleep.

"Rough night?" He heard her voice call as he turned towards the bathroom.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" He asked sleepily.

"lets just say sometimes my empath powers are more invasive than I'd like." She told him and his eyes widened.

"Oh… sorry." He said sheepishly.

"I have something that can fix that if you want." She told him.

"What?"

"Come with me." She said, gesturing for him to follow him into her room. She walked over to her vanity and opened the first drawer. She shuffled through several items before pulling out a small tattered box.

"Take one of these right before you go to sleep. It should stop the nightmares." She said and handed him the box. He pulled off the lid and stared at the small grey squares.

"Are they safe?" He asked, unsure of their appearance.

"No Garfield they are going to poison you and turn you into a toad." She droned mordantly.

"Well then it's a good thing I already do that then." He laughed nervously.

"Calm down, it's Azerathian medicine that Azar used to give me as a child to keep my father from contacting me through dreams while I slept. It's safe, but if you'd rather have nightmares for the rest of your life be my guest." She told him.

"No, I'll take it, thanks Rae." He said.

"Trust me this is helping me more than it's helping you. And do not call me Rae." She seethed.

"Sorry, I'll just go now." He said and slipped out of her room.

* * *

Raven sat on the side of the work bench, humbly enjoying the smell of grease and motor oil. Ever since her waking she had found herself comforted by an array of strange smells, fabric softener, hair spray, grass, vinegar, and most recently, motor oil.

"Raven? Rae? Are you listening to me?" His voice boomed. As he slid out from under his car. She had questioned him about one of his tools and sent him spiraling into a five minuet long rant and she had completely forgotten that he was talking.

"Sorry, I'm tired, what were you saying?" She apologized.

"Just that I think I'm going to marry the washing machine." He replied.

"No you weren't."

"How would you weren't listening." He smirked.

"Call it intuition." She replied stoically.

"Well you're right, what I really said was 'hey Rae can you hand me that wrench'?" She stalled a second before registering what he said.

"Oh, yeah, sure." She said and handed him the silver tool to her right.

"Seriously though Rae, this is like the third time this week you've blanked out on me. Either I'm boringer than I thought or you seriously need to get some more shut eye." He spoke, now back under the car his voice was muffled.

"I haven't been able to sleep lately. And Boringer isn't a word." She replied.

"It is if I say it is. And I hope you haven't been spending all your night's in the gym, I thought we fixed that problem." He said, referring to when her new obsession with punching bags had gotten a little bit out of hand.

"It was never a problem. But it's not that, Gar's been keeping me up." She replied and sly smile played across Cyborgs face.

"Oh, I see, I gotta admit, I thought it'd take him a little bit longer to get you back in that bed of his." He smirked. Raven's eyes widened. Then narrowed.

"That's disgusting Victor. He's been having nightmares, they're pretty strong, I could feel them." She replied.

"Damn, that sucks. Then again maybe if you did get into bed with him the nightmares would go away." Raven rolled her eyes. Unlike the other Robin and Starfire, Star who only did so under the advice of her boyfriend, who were always careful not to mention the strange implications of Raven and Garfield's situation, Victor was always quick to make a joke out of Garfield's unhindered affections for her.

"I'd rather not find out." She replied.

"Suit yourself." Victor muttered as he slid out from under the car and popped up to his feet.

"So whadda ya think?" He asked, beaming at the finished product of the T-Car Mach ten.

"It looks the same as the Mach 9." She replied blandly and he smirked.

"I think you'll rethink that after you see how it drives." He smirked, grabbing her wrist and pulling her off the bench over to his masterpiece.

* * *

Beastboy sat, sprawled across the couch, his eyes trained on the massive T.V. screen in front of him. Man vs. Wild. He hated that show. Yet somehow every time it snuck its way on to his TV he couldn't bare to look away.

As the show ended he angrily pressed flipped through the channels. He was unimaginably bored. What did he do with his life? He pondered, he had been alive for near twenty years, and surly he could've found something productive to fill his time with for now. Oh how he needed a hobby. Everyone had a hobby, Cyborg had his tools, and Rae had her books and her exercise, Star had shopping, and Robin had his detective work, which in hindsight was more of an obsession than a hobby but it was something to do.

_Where are they anyways?_ He absentmindedly wondered. The Tower had been vacant for hours. Dick had mentioned taking Kori on a date earlier that day, and Gar assumed he had taken her to some strange culture-immersing event. As for Raven and Victor, they were out doing, whatever it was those two did when they disappeared.

Garfield forced away the sickening feel building in his stomach. There was something unforgivably wretched about those two. Every day he could see them getting closer, and every day he had to try a little harder to ignore the bitter taste in his mouth that was beginning to seem more and more like jealousy.

He knew he was being childish and irrational. He had no reason to be jealous, Victor Stone was his best friend, and Raven, well if Raven had any feelings for him then she would've expressed them long before this mess had happened. He tried to convince himself, he had nothing to worry-

The large doors the Ops room glided open and the room was filled with the sweet sound of her wind chime laugh. _Wait._ Garfield's eyes shot wide open. _She was laughing._ Raven never laughed like that. A chuckle or scoff maybe, but her genuine laugh, never. Garfield craned his neck and looked over the back of the couch, there she was, clear as day, looking up at the tall cyborg, _laughing._ The laugh that Garfield had only heard a handful of times. Victor had either told the world's single most greatest joke, or… Garfield didn't want to think about what it would mean if it was the later.

"Hey watcha watching?" Victor asked and sat down next to his green friend. Garfield looked up at the screen, what was he watching? He didn't exactly know. Suddenly Bruce Willis flashed across the screen holding a nine millimeter at the camera.

"Fast and the Furious, it just started." Gar answered, but Victor was already hunched over on the edge of the seat gazing into the screen.

"Hey Rae, wanna watch this with us?" He called over his shoulder.

"As tempting as that sounds, I'll pass." She replied and exited the room.

Victor didn't seem to notice that Garfield was fuming for the rest of the movie. But he did notice when he abruptly stalked off the moment the credits began to roll. Victor didn't know what had gotten his friend in such a rotten mood, but it worried him. Garfield had been in such a volatile state, statistically anything could set him off.

* * *

Raven changed out of leotard and into more comfortable sleeping attire, a white t-shirt and grey sweats. She sat down on her bed with a book in hand and began to assess her day. It hadn't been a peaceful, villain free day, and for that she was thankful. To be blatantly honest Raven was uneasy about her hero work. Her pacifist uprising wasn't aligned with her line of work, to Raven, fighting was never the answer.

She hadn't seen much of Richard or Kori that day. The two had disappeared early in the day and she had only just heard them enter the Tower. With two of her teammates gone she gladly took the opportunity to spend time with Victor. He was calming to be around, and she enjoyed helping him work, not that she was particular good help when it came to mechanics, she was happy to listen and learn, if anything she simply admired his dedication to his work.

The Mach 10 was impressive. It was an exhilarating ride when it was pushed to it's limits, and Raven had quietly enjoyed the dramatic effect of the vehicle, while Victor chose a more enthusiastic mode of expression, it was clear that he had never been prouder of himself until today.

Raven knew she enjoyed his company more than the others. All the titans tried to be a good friend to her, but so far he had been the only to succeed. For a moment she allowed her thoughts to drift down a dangerous path, to ponder the possibility that she might even see him as more than a good friend.

_No. _she told herself. It was unfathomable, her feelings for the metallic man, if any, were strictly platonic.

Suddenly a wildfire of foreign emotions washed over her. _Garfield_. She recognized. The changeling had an infuriating habit of expressing strong, unrestrained, negative emotions. At the moment she noticed a particularly unpleasant emotion. Jealousy.

* * *

The hooded figure paced back in forth in the small apartment. The anticipation had built up to a point of agony.

"You should really calm down you know." The figure stopped and stared at her low life accomplice. He sat comfortably in the chair in the corner. The dim lighting made him hard to see but she could just get a glimpse of his grease spiked hair and dark grey eyes. He was really a sorry sight she thought when noticing his old t shirt that looked as if he hadn't changed it in a week and the large chains that feel feebly from his oversized black pants.

If he only new what she thought of him… but luckily for her she was good at keeping her emotions in check. And she only had one more day with this moron, and then everything would fall in to place.

"I'm nervous Sam, this is everything we've planned for, I don't want to mess it up." She told him, trying to sound as innocent as possible, which at this point was more difficult than it seemed.

"I know, if anyone should be worried it's me, if anything goes wrong, it would be my ass on the line Al." He said, attempting to calm her. She hated being called that; granted she made it up, she needed a name that would never be traced back to her, and something so ghastly as Alison Forbes, certainly never would be.

She had gotten a lucky break. A miracle, if you believed in that type of thing, that the only person who would ever be able to figure her plan out, ever able to trace her and take her down, didn't remember who she was.

She smirked and pulled down her hood, exposing her bright white hair and dark green eyes and walked towards Sam, straddling him wither tan arms, he had always been intoxicated by her strange looks. She knew that, and she had used it against him since the beginning.

But Tomorrow would be the day. The plan was simple, she would leave unscathed and with her revenge, and he, wouldn't leave at all. She figured if she was going to screw him over he at least deserved one night.

"Nothing's going to go wrong." She whispered before placing her lips on to his.

* * *

Garfield stalked into his room and fell down on his bed and shifted his glance towards the little black box on his nightstand. He considered not taking them, suffering through the nightmares just to make her guilty. But he knew it wouldn't, if anything it would only anger her. And he really didn't want to suffer through another nightmare _and _Raven's wrath, So he irritably grabbed the box and shoved one of the odd pills down his throat praying that he'd wake up in a better mood.

* * *

**Author's Note: It's not edited, I'm sure it's riddled with mistakes and I'll try to edit it tomorrow but for now I didn't have time so please excuse the sloppiness. Now I have a question, what is the most ridiculous villain power you can think of? I need it for part of my new story. If you come up with something I use I'll give you credit in the story. Also, what's your favorite flower? If you could leave an answer and REVIEW it'd be great, thanks. **


	7. Chapter Seven: Shriek

Author's Note: I almost cried. Not because the chapters sad, but because my work kept getting erased. I'm not even sure this chapter makes sense, after writing it I idiotically deleted the file, which pretty much broke my sprits so much that I refused to go near my computer, so after going MIA, for a month I finally got around to finishing it, between 1 and 5 in the morning. Then I went to edit it, and accidentally undid all that work to. So after being thoroughly frustrated, this is finally done. The good news is I've got the next chapter near to done and have been working on some new stuff which should be up within the week :)

So now, heres a charming little disclaimer to distract you from the epic failure of this chapter.

Me: Starfire, since you have the smallest part in this chapter I think it would be fair for you to Disclaim.

**Starfire: Oh that would be magnificent! I am honored!**

Me: Yeah, that's great, can ya get on with it though?

**Starfire: What is this it that I must take on to what?**

Me: It's just an expression, could you do the disclaimer now?

**Starfire: Oh of course! The author Stripes of the tiger would like to inform you that she is not the possessor of the teen titans ownership as to prevent the suing of her.**

Me: Thanks.

* * *

Chapter Seven: Shriek

The shrilling siren rang throughout the tower, waking Raven from her sleep. She slowly dragged herself to an upright possition , displeased with the interruption of what had been her first good nights sleep in weeks.

_Who in their right mind would want to attack at five in the morning anyways? _She groggily thought as she teleported into the Ops room. Raven had always been accustomed to early mornings; however, in the few short weeks she had been a titan she had hardly grown accustomed to such alarming methods of awakening.

"Dude it's not even dawn yet, who the hell would be attacking us?" Garfield yawned as he and the other Titans trickled into the room, and for once she shared his aggravated curiosity.

"Someone decided to give the town a loud and violent wake up call, we need to get downtown as soon as possible." Cyborg reported as he checked the Titan's mainframe.

"Raven I need you to teleport us." Dick ordered as he put on his mask and she quickly complied, enveloping them all with her dark energy.

The Titans rematerialized in front of a row of cop cars, an ambulance, and more blaring sires. In the center of the intersection was a large segment of charred pavement and mangled debris.

"Officer what happened here?" Nightwing asked Chief Harris who was frantically directing another officer.

"A bomb was set off in the middle of the intersection, luckily there was no one around but we haven't figured out what set it off yet." Suddenly a large crash caused the officers and titans to jump.

Standing on top of a pile of mangled cars was a crazed looking young man with an array of wires attached to him. Garfield nearly laughed at his promptly cliche outfit, which was absurdly melodramatic from his spiked hair to his studded leather jacket to his oversized cargo boots. His face was drained of its color and the circles under his eyes suggested that he was on every kind of poison he could find.

"Teen Titans. It's so nice of you to join me. I have to admit I was surprised that all it took was one measly explosion to get your attention. I'd think you'd have better things to do at the crack of dawn." His voice only added to the growing indication of his insanity.

"What do you want?" Nightwing harped at the anonymous villain.

"Simple. It is time you pests learn a lesson, and shriek intends to give it to you. I've spent a lot of time watching you fools look after the city with your aimless heroics. People praise and idolize you, but it's time for all of that to end. Its time for you to learn that you can't save everyone. To prove that even good heroes always fall. So today I have a test for you. A test that will expose your true worth as heroes and a test you will inevitably fail. There are six bombs, spread out across downtown, all going to detinate at different times. Fail my test, and you fail the city." A cloud of smoke then built up around him and he disappeared.

"Well that was dramatic." Beast Boy muttered under his breath.

"Titans, we need to find those bombs and deactivate them as soon as possible." Nightwing ordered, ignoring Garfield's comment.

"Garfield I need you to track those bombs, Vic go with him, he'll need to deactivate them. Starfire, Raven I need you to evacuate the area as soon as possible, we can't take any chances." He directed.

"What about you?" Cyborg asked.

"Me. I have a criminal to catch." He said, and disappeared into the shadows. Raven and Starfire turned down the street and into the nearest building. Leaving the last two members in the middle of the street.

* * *

The robot and the greyhound drifted slowly down the deserted street. As the minuets passed by the search became more hectic. Garfield kept his nose to the ground, searching for the infamous stench of gunpowder. But it wasn't any smell that caught his attention; it was the unmistakable ticking sound that caused him to dash forward, leaving Cyborg to catch up.

Beast Boy darted into an ally, shifted back into his human form as he ripped open the black backpack and pulled out the large mesh of metal and wire.

"Cy, I found one." He called to his teammate as Victor rushed to keep up with him.

Cyborg took the bomb and began to dismantle it until the ticking came to a crisp halt.

"That's one down." He said as he dropped the smoking bomb to the ground.

* * *

Starfire struggled to reason with a short-tempered shop keeper. She had never understood the incompetence of humans, especially in the face to danger. She had managed to evacuate the entire building but this one refused to cooperate.

So far two of the bombs had been located so far, and nothing had been set off. But they didn't want to take any chances, no one would be safe until all six of the bombs were located and defused.

"I'm sorry Sir but we must evacuate the area." She attempted to rationalize. Finally Raven re-entered the shop, causing Kori to sigh in relief.

"Cyborg and Beast Boy just found another one. Did you get everyone out?" She asked as she made her way to Starfire.

"_All _most everyone." Starfire seethed, glancing at the man.

"You need to leave now. It isn't safe." She told the man who just snorted.

"I'm not leaving my shop, and there's nothing you can say to change my mind." He scoffed.

"I will remove you against your will if it's what you prefer." She calmly mused.

"You can't intimidate me lady." Raven rolled her eyes; she hadn't the time nor tolerance to deal with this man's ignorance. Calmly she placed her hand on his shoulder and they both disappeared from the shop, leaving Koriandr staring at the spot where they just stood.

Moments later Raven reappeared alone in the shop and began walking towards the exit. She paid no attention to her teammates catatonic stance.

"Do you hear that?" Kori cried as she ran to Raven's side.

"Do I hear what Starfire?"

"Something is not right. We must find its source." She stated, grabbing Raven's wrist and pulling back into the back of the shop. Starfire had always been a bit melodramatic and even paranoid at times, but of what Raven had seen of her, she could usually sense danger and so it was better to trust her than to attempt to understand her.

Eventually Kori had led them into the back room where she had feverishly began to tear apart the room, tossing boxes and books and other useless clutter until she found the source of her unease.

"Raven I have found one." She exasperated, holding up the ticking device.

"Nice ear." Raven interjected.

"But how do we deactivate it?" Starfire inquired, to which the device was engulfed by a dark energy and began to shake until it let out a small spark, seizing the chilling tick.

"Four down, two to go." Raven mused.

* * *

Nightwing stopped in the middle of the street, panting to catch his breath, he had ran himself dry, hastily looking for a hint of the running psychopath.

If there were two things that bothered him the most it was being woken up unexpectedly and murderous psychopaths. While most of the villains that he faced in fact dabbled in the fields of the criminally insane, there was a large difference between the ones who were greedy thieves and those who crossed over to the more dangerous side of insanity, the side that was to this day, the reason he refused to step near a circus.

He caught a glimpse of the kid- Shriek- in the distance and frantically began sprinting again down the street and cornering him into an ally.

"Give it up. You've got no where else to run." Nightwing asserted as the panicked man reached into his pocket, pulling out a small metal device. As soon as the device was triggered a mass of fog blasted through the ally, knocking Robin to the ground.

When Nightwing got himself to his feet his opponent was nowhere in sight. He realized that he was dealing with no ordinary smoke bomb, for the foggy gas still hung thick in the air and had spread far behind the ally.

* * *

Raven struggled to see through the smog. She and Starfire had cleared all the buildings and streets when a wave of smoke came rushing through the city, with one bomb left and the terrorist still on the loose Starfire had opted to join in the search for the last device while Raven stayed behind to do another sweep of the area.

Suddenly she was hit by a strong crash of panicked emotion, distress and fear. She wafted her way through the cloud of smoke, looking for the source. Soon the emotions blurred into the background and were replaced with the unsettling muse of sobbing.

"Hello? Are you ok?" Raven called as she came in view of the hooded figure sitting, curled up into the corner. Raven ran up, and knelt down to face her. The girl had long white hair that poured out of the hood and her face was red and tear stained.

"I don't know what happened, all the sudden there was this loud explosion, and then I couldn't see." The girl sobbed.

"It's ok, I'm going to get you out of here. Are you hurt?" Raven assured.

"My leg, it's crushed." She replied in a panic.

"Everything is going to be fine, I can fix your leg." Raven said and placed her hand over the girl's knee. Once the wound was healed she stood up and helped her to her feet.

"Can you tell me what happened before the smoke came?" Raven asked as she led the girl out of the ally.

"I'm not sure, I was walking home when I saw this man with a backpack running towards me, and there was this big mass of smoke behind him, next thing I new I was on the ground and I couldn't feel my leg." She recited. Before Raven could question her further the familiar tone of her communicator rang.

"What's our status?" She asked as she flipped the device open.

_Cy and B disarmed the last bomb, it's safe to end the evacuation._ Robin reported, washing Raven with a sense of relief.

"What about the smoke?"

_The paramedics say that it doesn't look harmful and should clear up within the hour, but we should steer clear of it just to be safe. I need you to see if you can trace the source of the smog and get a lock on our culprit._ Raven nodded to the video and snapped the communicator shut.

"I've just been informed the areas safe now, I need to join the rest of my team, will you be okay on your own?" The girl nodded and thanked Raven, who then turned the other way and began to fly away.

* * *

"Well that wasn't so hard." Victor exclaimed as he ripped apart the remains of the final bomb.

"Yeah, easy for you to say, I did all the work, all you did was zap things." Garfield replied.

"Oh right, I guess I just forgot how hard sniffing stuff must be for you." Cyborg teased, however instead of being met with a cold comeback he turned to see a catatonic Beast Boy, eyes wide with horror.

"B, are you ok?" He began to ask but before he could fully form his sentence Garfield had shifted into a cheetah and darted down the street.

He couldn't explain what it was precisely, whether it was a smell, or a sound, or just purely animal instinct. All he knew was that whatever its source, it needed to be stopped. "It" got stronger as he turned down onto an old road, but he didn't stop to register where he was or the old brick building that he promptly ran into. However, the blinding white glow did get his attention and he finally understood his strange impulsion. The scent was positively toxic, to the point where he almost couldn't keep himself conscious. The glow retracted to the size of a person, and then grew, illuminating the entire room. It retracted again, each time growing larger in size. Garfield registered that whatever it was it was building in strength, and positively explosive.

In the struggle between fight or flight, the changeling stood static, unable to move, until the smell of burning ash wafted into his system and the battle was over. Flight had won. Backing up he chaotically struggled to find his way out of the building, shifting into an eagle as he heard the roar of the final explosion erupt from the building. The flame consumed the air, engulfing the building and extending to the tip of the eagle's wing as it strained to escape. As he plummeted to the ground he shifted back into his human form, for once grateful he had taken the coward's choice.

* * *

Every time he got close, or thought he had one, he would find the man eluded him once more, slipping through his fingers. Time and time again had he gotten close to winning, but now he had tired from this game of cat and mouse.

Nightwing could notice that this was having the same effect on his opponent; he was getting sloppy. And so Richard cut his losses and began one last chase, until finally the foolish criminal took a turn down the wrong street, one, which lead directly to the nearly forgotten police squad.

Sam suddenly found himself slammed against the side of a cop car, with the foolish hero pinnining him down.

Breathing heavy, Robin began streaming a long line of questions. "What game are you playing?" He barked.

"This is no game, like I said, Shreik believes you are in need of a lesson. This was only a test which you have so frivolously failed." Shriek coly replied.

"My team has disabled all six of the bombs."

"Six? What about the last one?" He laughed and Robin's eyes grew wide as a thundering noise came from the distance, causing every head to turn and stare and the horrifying explosion.

The chief of police quickly moved in front of the smirking criminal and placed him in handcuffs, shoving him into the back of the cop car.

"I told you, this was a test you couldn't win. Lock me away for as long as you want, I am only the messenger, and the message has been sent. You can not win against shriek." He laughed as the door shut, _wait, if he's not shriek,_ the question drifted into his mind and Robin found himself screaming a ghostly phrase.

"Who is Shriek?"

* * *

Raven ghosted down the street when she was interrupted by a deafening crack sounded and the neighboring building was blasted to pieces. Throwing her to the ground. She looked up at the demolished building, but what horrified her more was the distant green body lying dormant amongst the rubble.

In a haste she sped to her teammates side, gently rolling him onto his back.

His left arm was completely singed and she could still smell the pungent smell of burning flesh.

"Beast Boy? Can you hear me?" She asked and his eyes squinted open.

"Shit, my arm." He groaned and looked over to see his burned arm which still sizzled from the heat.

"We have to get you back to the tower." She said and pulled him to his feet.

"Well at least it didn't get the rest of me." He said as he relished in his working legs, momentarily ignoring the pain from the fall as well as the burn.

"Gar what happened?" She asked him as she took a second look at the demolished landscape.

"The building blew up." He stated bluntly. Before she could roll her eyes from his obtuse observation her communicator went off.

_Raven? Are you okay? _Nightwing called frantically, and she could hear the clattered voices of the rest of her teammates from the other side.

"Yes, I'm with Garfield, he's hurt, I'm taking him back to the tower." She replied and could visibly see the stress in her leader increase.

_Ok, take care of Beastboy, we'll be there as soon as we can. _Nightwing ordered the line went blank. Raven, knowing her teammate would object, quickly teleported them back to the tower before he had a chance to protest against their means of transportation.

* * *

Raven and Garfield stumbled into the infirmary and she let the changeling slip off her arm onto the bench. Raven took a moment to notice the severity of Garfield's injury. The majority of his sleeve had been charred and she could see the tender burning flesh peaking through the shredded fabric.

"We need to get that clean." She mused and grabbed a pair of scissors from the table.

"Here, give me your arm." She directed and he extended his arm to her and she took it, careful not to touch the part that was burnt. Garfield grimaced as she cut away the fabric of his sleeve.

As she pulled the last piece of cloth away from his arm they both looked to stare at his seared flesh. His skin burned hot red, with dark blood that seeped out and contrasted with his jade skin. The burn ran up his forearm and twisted around to cover his triceps, she could see the areas where the flames had hit him harder and threatened to penetrate into his muscle.

"It's not as bad as it looks." He sheepishly told her. She didn't reply, instead she stood up and turned to the sink, grabbing a dark blue rag and soaking it under the faucet.

She sat back on to the stool and grabbed his wrist.

"This might sting." She warned him and pressed the rag to the burn. He squirmed as she dabbed the cool rag along his arm. Every time it contacted his skin he would tense his arm and struggle in her grip.

"Ow! That hurts." Garfield finally exclaimed, jerking his arm away from the rag, pulling it defensively against his chest.

"It would hurt less if you would sit still." She barked.

"Can't you just heal me?" He whined to her.

"My powers can only do so much, now give me your arm." He reluctantly complied and she placed the soaked rag back on to his mutated skin. He flinched at contact but kept still until she finally put the rag aside and replaced it with her hand.

As his arm and her hand began to glow he looked up at her grimacing face. He was struck with guilt, he shouldn't have asked her to heal him, especially when he knew what doing so did to her. The wound began to disappear until all that remained was a faint scar and he saw the tension in her face dissolve.

"You lied, it was as bad as it looked." She told him, her voice was cold and stoic. She gently let go of his arm and he opened and closed his hand, examining the freshly healed arm.

"Sorry, you didn't have to heal me." He replied sheepishly.

"I know. But, if I didn't you would just complain for the next week, and I couldn't have that." But she realized that wasn't the reason at all. In fact she could care less about his whining, but she had put him through so much pain. Even when he acted like he was ok, she could see right through all of it, because she could feel how dead he was inside, she could feel all the pain and heartbreak and regret. It was always there, day and night, and she knew she had done this to him, her empathy; it was her curse to live with. So if there was something, anything she could do, to take even the smallest fraction of his pain away, she would.

"Thanks Rae." He said, not even noticing the misuse of her name. Thankfully neither did she, or she chose to overlook it.

"Don't mention it." She replied, offering him a small, redeeming smile; the kind that wasn't forced like so many of her others. The untrained eye would have never seen it, but he caught it, the barely upturned corners of her lips. He wanted so badly to feel her lips again. To wrap his arms around her and kiss her like she was his. He knew he shouldn't let himself be enthralled with such thoughts; he knew he would pay for thinking such things later. But right now he didn't care, because she had smiled, and that was all that mattered to him.

"Come on we should get back to the team." She told him, and stood up, walking out of his sight.

* * *

The plan had worked. All my fears and worries from the night before melted away. There were moments, where I was sure something would go wrong, that Raven would see right through my charade. But the lack of pain in my leg told otherwise, I must admit, that was not part of the plan. I only intended to lure her to me, after all, all i needed was a simple handshake. But when that imbecile of a side kick, if he could even be named so highly, pulled that gas bomb it caught me off guard. However, with some stroke of luck I had pulled it off. If I had been religious I might have thanked god right about now. I was alive, I was safe, and I had the upper hand. And nothing else mattered besides those three things right now. Because the plan had worked.

Author's note: Ok so first I would like to clarify that Shriek isn't Rose Wilson, even though I just gave about a hundred reasons for you to believe she is, it's not her, I'm just an idiot and all of those "clues" were purely coincidental. In fact I honestly would like to make it Rose just so everything would fall into place, but for reasons that will be disclosed later on, I can't. But I can fully confirm that in no part of the story will Slade or any of his children appear, I think our titans have had enough of that. Anyways if it wasn't apparent by the 2 month delay, I had extreme difficulties writing this to my satisfaction, and I still think it sucks monkey butt, so I apologize for that. But I would love if you could REVIEW and tell me what you thing Allison is planning (because honestly I'm not quite sure yet) Or just REVIEW for the hell of it, I don't really care. I'm considering moving this to the M section soon, if any one thinks it belongs there now, PLEASE let me know and I will move it ASAP. Also next update will be Sunday and I'll also have the first chapter of my new short story up then. So… yeah, like I said, REVIEW.

Also sorry for the extremely long Author's note.

Oh and review |

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	8. Chapter eight: Gar's Girl

Author's note: Oh look, another chapter… I really should update more often. Anyways I spent a very long time trying to figure out how to write this without making Raven even more OOC than she is in all my other chapters. I feel like towards the end she acts more like her comic book version, and I admittedly confess that I'm starting to blur the lines between the two versions. But oh well this is all you're getting. **Also as a WARNING I didn't edit this at all before I posted it, so if your reading this just be aware that I haven't edited it for grammar, spelling, and down right common sense, but I will as soon as possible.**

* * *

**BB: We had a moment! **

Me: Who had a moment?

**BB: Me and Raven! **

**Raven: I don't remember that….**

**BB: Oh come on, you smiled and everything.**

**Raven: I think you're blowing this out of proportion **

Me: could you two stop arguing and just do the disclaimer

**Raven: TigerStriper doesn't own Teen Titans, or any of it's affiliations. **

**BB: also don't sue her that would suck. **

Me: Thank you.

**BB: Anytime, oh and Raven, we totally had a moment.**

* * *

Chapter Eight: Gar's Girl

Dick sat in the dimly lit room, hunched over the evidence that lay sprawled across his desk. Three days had passed since the bombing, and every day the message got more and more clear, this was not over; it was just the beginning.

Samuel Corbin. He had an extensive criminal record. However, none which stepped out of the realm of petty thefts and vandalisms, he was a low-life crook, not a terrorist. A little over four months ago he was caught stealing from an Apple store, which landed him a six-month sentence. This was nothing unusual, until last month when he was mysteriously broken out.

In addition, the six bombs all turned out to be fakes, which normally would have led him to believe that the whole stunt was a hoax. If it were not to take into account the last explosion, which had no reminisce of any explosives, not to mention the fact that Garfield said he smelt some sort of chemical storm just moments before.

Along with Corbin's cryptic messages the answer was obvious, someone else had been pulling the strings, and the bombing was just a warning, a fluke meant to tell the Titans to back off, and they got the message loud and clear. Whatever they were dealing with was dangerous, and most importantly it wasn't beyond murder.

_Teach you a lesson._ The words haunted in the back of his mind. Whoever was doing this was playing a game, trying to make them struggle. Nightwing thought his days of games were over, and he was not about to re-engage in the world of the psychopath when he still woke in the dead of night with the sound of laughing haunting his nightmares.

A soft knock pulled Robin out of his circular thought process. He sighed and sat back in his chair, as his interrupter slowly walked into the room.

"Richard. I don't suppose you have found anything yet?" She inquired.

"Nothing, I just keep coming back to the same useless conclusions, what about you and Raven? Any progress?"

"No, we've been just as unsuccessful." She replied as she placed a hand on his shoulder and gently turned him around to face her.

"I just don't get it Star, I feel like I'm missing something, I just wish I knew what." He sighed.

"Perhaps we are looking at the situation too closely, you've been holed up in this room for the past three days, and perhaps you should take a break." Dick sighed again, he knew his girlfriend was right, though he didn't know if he was ready to admit it.

"Star…" He said as he tried to formulate an adequate excuse. She sat down on his lap and latched her other arm around his neck.

"We have been so busy with all this craziness that we have hardly had anytime to focus on us. The work will still be here for us tomorrow." Her voice had hushed to a whisper.

"Ok Kor, you've convinced me, but tomorrow we have to get back to work." He mustered out but she was already pulling him from the chair.

* * *

It's a very troubling matter, forgetting that is. A name, or an address, or the location of your keys, it's a very distressing feeling, because you know you should remember, you feel that if you could just think a little harder, the answer will come to you.

However, it's a completely other matter when you don't even know you're forgetting something at all. Haunting almost, to be told that you are missing something and yet have no recollection of it at all.

Up until recent events, Raven's feelings towards her missing chunk of memory fell into this category; ghostly and unsettling, and for the most part, easy to ignore. But somewhere during all the chaos of solving are newest riddle, she had been struck with the former feeling. Knowing there was something she was overlooking, or forgetting, but no matter how hard she concentrated she could not figure out what it was. The feeling was simply driving her mad.

But this was not the only problem the seemed to be driving her up the wall. The second issue that perplexed her was a bit more tangible, and for that reason she decided to focus on the latter issue. The issue being tall, dark, and currently staring at the remains of the broken detonator.

"I just don't get it." Victor sighed as he twirled the small metal piece in his fingers.

The bombs had all been fakes. Each of them designed and wired to look and work like a real one, but as Victor took them apart it was evident that none of them were programmed to ever go off.

"You've been staring at that thing for the past hour, if you were ever going to _get it_, it would have happened a long time ago." Raven told him, closing the small laptop in front of her. Her computer was one of the devices that was intended to help her reconnect with her old life, but it was hardly any use seeing as Raven was hardly one for personalization and self expression. In all honesty she had been surprised she even owned one at all, until she learned that the device had been forced upon her, and was mostly used at a research vessel, which she had to admit, came quite easily to her.

In all reality it wasn't that big of an issue. After all it wasn't as if she was in love with him, if anything it was no more than a small attraction, one which she knew she had the restraint and practice to subdue at any time. However she was starting to wonder what would be the point of ignoring it. Similarly she wondered what would be the point if she chose to act upon it, choosing not to was most definitely the _safer _option. But after hearing of her relations with Gar she had conformation that she could indeed possess complex emotions safely. Of course she still had no idea how she would react if those emotions were negative, they could be potentially chaotic.

"It's just so… odd." He replied. Puling her from her internal conflict.

"It isn't odd, it's genius. I'm not an expert in revenge but its obvious that whatever this Shriek's problem with us is, it's personal." She told him.

"So what to we do now? Cuz we're not getting anywhere from this whole detective angle."

"We don't do anything. Shriek wants us to play into his game, tire ourselves out trying to figure him out. If we don't do anything then we aren't giving him what he wants." Raven wished she had a better answer for him.

"I don't like the sound of that Rave. We need to be prepared. It's obvious this Shriek guy isn't messin' around here."

"I know, I'm not saying we should give up. But we've worked around the clock for three days and we still don't have anything to go on. Dick spent hours in that interrogation room, Sam isn't talking. We can't get so obsessed with finding the answers that we ignore everything else. When Shriek strikes, we have to be ready for _that_ we can't be distracted by this wild goose chase."

"But we can't just lay all our cards out on the hopes that we can beat this guy, not after last time. We have to try and get to him before he gets to us." He had a point, but knowing their leader, they would tire out before they ever found any hard evidence, and by that time Shriek would have already gotten to them.

"I know Victor. But we can't run ourselves to the point of exhaustion."

"You're probably right Rae, so does this mean we can take a break, I'm starving." He joked and she allowed herself to break from her circling thought train to crack a smile.

* * *

_Garfield was literally shaking when they arrived back from their last mission. He couldn't believe that all these years Mad Mod was still out there, trying to take of the city or whatever new ploy had landed on his British agenda. Shouldn't he be dead by now? Garfield absently wondered._

_But it wasn't the insane Britt that was a cause for his nervousness. Rather because in less than a minute he was about to do something incredibly, incredibly stupid. He paced back in forth waiting rfor her to come up from the hanger. The elevator door oppend and she came sauntering out, he could feel his stomach dropping to his feet now. _

"_Raven." He called grabbing her attention before she had the chance to walk off. _

_I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go get something to eat later, with me?" He stumbled over his words. _

"_Are you asking me out?" She asked_

"_No, well maybe." He stuttered as she crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue. _

"_It's just I thought since we haven't done anything in a while, it might be a good idea. It wouldn't be a date, just something like a date?" Her expression didn't change, he was putting his foot in his mouth, and they both knew it. _

"_It's fine if you say no, I just thought I'd ask." He finally stopped to wait for her reaction. And for several long painful seconds she didn't do anything. In those seconds he could have died. And then as to pull him out of his moment of panic she dropped her arms and began to speak._

"_Fine. Give me an hour." She told him and walked out of the room._

* * *

_He didn't know why he was so nervous. He and Raven had gone out numerous times, and he tried to remind himself that this was just like any other time. Only this time he had to be an idiot and make it into something more. It was unchartered territory, and it frightened him. _

_So when she walked out of her room he was convinced for the second time that day that he was going to die._

"_Hey you ready?" He didn't know how he had managed to speak without throwing up, but he had the feeling that he should thank god or something. They were both dressed in civvey clothing. Despite the fact that both of them would stand out like a sore thumb, regardless of their clothing. _

"_Just give me a moment. So where are you taking me?" She asked and he couldn't help but notice how she hadn't asked where _they _were going. She had forced the decision completely into his hands. It was no longer a matter of comprisable friendship, it was clear that _he _was taking her out. And if things went terribly wrong, he would be the one responsible._

_He didn't know how he had made it through the night, but somehow down the road she reminded him that she was the same girl he had known for the past five years and all his nerves melted into the background. But now as they stood in the hallway that lead to their respective rooms all his forced calmness dissipated and his stomach was on fire again. _

"_Ok Gar cut the crap." She finally told him after he had rambled himself into a bottomless pit, talking nearly nonsense. _

"_What?" He stuttered in slight shock._

"_You've been a bundle of nerves all night. I can literally see your aurora shaking." Her arms were crossed again, in a more stern and accusing manner now._

"_Crap, right. Well I um, I just don't want to mess anything up. I mean we've never done anything like this and I don't want to ruin what we already have but I really like you and- shit. Um I'm sorry Rae, I guess this whole date thing just got me really worked up. You know what, just forget it. I'll see you tomorrow, forget this ever happened." He wanted to scream at himself, _moron_, he thought, but turned to go back to his room. _

_Before he could escape her hand was on his shoulder stopping him. And then her lips were on his. It was short and chaste, and before he had time to register what had happened she had let go of him and disappeared into her own room. And for once he thought that maybe, just maybe, he had done something right._

* * *

"Damn girl, who knew you had such an apatite, you ate like half that pizza!" Victor exclaimed as they entered the elevator that went up from the hanger.

"Coming from the man who ate the other two and a half, that isn't saying much." She retorted.

"Still, I've never seen you eat that much, heck I don't think I've ever seen a girl scarf down that much food besides Star. But she's got ya beat by six stomachs." He smiled at her. _Damn him for smiling. _Raven was good at controlling her emotions. Hell she was an expert; she had a lifetime of practice at making sure every action, every word, came from a place of unadulterated reason. And up until recent events she had down this without falter, she couldn't _afford _to make mistakes. But now things were different.

She _could _afford to make mistakes, and the consequences would be all her own.

"I'm glad we did this, it was fun." She said when they got in front of her door, fully aware of how odd it was for her to use the word fun in such a way.

"Yeah, it's nice to get some time away from Dick's workaholic craziness." He laughed.

"Agreed. I have to admit, I enjoy spending time with you much more than I expected."

"Well good, I know how difficult this all's been for you. I'm glad you can still see me as your friend." He beamed.

"Actually, I'm starting to think I have feelings for you that precede friendship." The instant the words left her mouth he did not quite hear them, it seemed instead they floated invisibly in the air, so improbable that his brain did not even register that she had said anything at all. But then suddenly his wires remembered how to work and the words rang through his circuits.

He misheard her, he justified. It was the only other logical explanation besides the possibility that he was hearing things. Which at this point was just as likely of an explanation.

"What?"

"I have feelings for you Victor. But I can sense that you don't feel the same." She sighed.

"Wow."

"I'll be going now." She said and the door to her room slid open.

"Wait, Raven. It's just, you caught me by surprise. For so long you've been like a sister to me, I just never thought you could see me in that way." He stuttered over his lame words.

"You mean, you couldn't see me in that way. I understand."

"No it's not that. You've just never been an option to me, you're Gar's girl, I could never do something like that to him." He tried to explain. But how can you explain to someone that they themself have made them self so unavailable in such a way? The short answer is you couldn't.

"I see. It was dumb of me to even say anything. I'm sorry, I'll see you in the morning. Just forget I ever said anything. Goodnight." She said before disappearing inside her room.

She quickly collapsed face first on her bed. How could she have been so foolish. Anger and pain bottled up from the pit of her stomach to her throat before spilling out in muffled groan of frustration.

_Gar's girl._

How dare he? She had thought he was different. Thought he could see her as she is, not as she was. But apparently she was wrong. None of them saw her. All they saw was a person she used to be. _Gar's girl. _ That is who she was to them. That is who she would always be. She truly saw that now. No dramatic display of self expression would ever change that. It is true that she spent years hiding from who she truly was, but now in this moment, she wanted nothing more than to be scene for her true self.

At least she could appreciate the irony.

* * *

AN: So you want to know a secret? I was going to have Raven kiss Cy. In fact I wrote the whole chapter leading up to that (actually more importantly leading up to the line after) but then I got to the actual moment and decided that I was already swimming in a mess of OOC and didn't need any more to pile on top of that. Anyways I hope you guys caught the parallelism. Sorry for the wait btw. I really don't have any excuses besides a slight fear that I'm losing interest in my own story (NOOOO!) but hopefully once I get passed all this jumbley guck it will get better. Maybe.


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